1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of a collision detection technology, and more particularly to a three-dimensional collision detection system and method for a measuring machine.
2. Description of Related Art
It is understood that, measuring machines, as used in product development and production, are used for improving production quality of an enterprise. In general, three-Dimensional (hereinafter, “3D”) measurement is widely used in the manufacturing industry for detecting a newly developed product on a measuring machine. However, the 3D measuring machines need to have a high precision when measuring physical dimensions and geometric tolerances of the product.
A 3D collision is a collision between a moveable arm of the measuring machine and a to-be-measured workpiece on the measuring machine when an operator measures the physical dimensions and the geometric tolerances of the product. Such 3D collisions may result in damaging or even destroying the to-be-measured workpiece and/or the measuring machine, as a result the measuring machine may malfunction. More importantly, manually predicting, calculating, and avoiding the 3D collisions becomes a severe inefficiency problem resulting in time consuming and decreased productivity.
What is needed, therefore, is a 3D collision detection system and method for a measuring machine, which can automatically detect the 3D collision between the moveable arm of the measuring machine and the to-be-measured workpiece on the measuring machine by utilizing a computer program instead of the manual measurement means. Such 3D collision detection method can obtain accurate results of the 3D collisions, and can automatically predict and avoid the 3D collisions on the measuring machine.